The effects and uses of magnetism have been known for quite some time. Over the years many inventors have employed magnetism to create a variety of games requiring various degrees of skill. Some of these types of games are educational, such as the game disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,764,145 or in U.S. Pat. No. 1,225,787. Some games have been made strictly to amuse or entertain adults and/or children alike.
Another U.S. Pat. No., to Juran, U.S. Pat. No. 2,665,912, discloses a magnetic shuffleboard-like game. The playing surface of this game is inclined. Various regions are marked on the playing surface and each region is worth a predetermined amount or number of points, the region being farthest down the playing surface having the highest point value. A plurality of magnets of varying strengths are arranged in each region. To play the game, a player starts a metallic ball rolling down the incline. The magnets will cause the ball to travel a sort of zig-zag course. It is possible for the ball to either be attracted to or captured by one of the magnets or to pass through all the regions. In point scoring, each player is awarded the point value of the region each played ball ends up in.
Maze type games have been fascinating countless people since ancient times. Initially these games were rather simple and usually required the player to move a ball through a path provided with traps, such as holes positioned so as to interfere with and prevent further movement of the ball. In time, such games or mazes became more intricate and more things were added to the mazes to make them increasingly more difficult to play so as to increase their entertainment and/or educational value.
Examples of early magnetic games are Cook, U.S. Pat. No. 1,059,928 and Dingledine, U.S. Pat. No. 1,888,980. These inventors perfected magnetic games in the early part of this century.
In Kernodle, U.S. Pat. No. 3,116,929, magnetism was used to form a toy of a maze game type having a labyrinth designed on the game's playing surface. A magnet is then used to direct a magnetic object through the desired course. U.S. Pat. No. 3,712,617 to Oshschlager involves a more intricate magnetic maze game, particularly with regard to the system for moving a magnet back and forth.